"BUJOLD, Lois McMaster - Vorkosigan 10 - Mirror Dance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bujold Lois McMaster)

with a bare click, eat and smooth as humanly possible. "Shall I wait, sir?"



"No. I shouldnТt be needing you again."



The pilot hurried to adjust the tube seals while his passenger was till unbuckling, and saluted him out with another idiot

broad proud mile. He twitched a returning smile and salute, then grasped the handlebars above the hatch and swung himself

into the ArielТs gravity ield.



He dropped neatly to his feet in a small loading bay. Behind him, he pod pilot was already re-sealing the hatch to return

himself and iis pod to its vessel of origin, probably the flagship Triumph. He looked upЧalways, upЧinto the face of the waiting

Dendarii officer, a face he had studied before this only in a holovid.



Captain Bel Thorne was a Betan hermaphrodite, a race that was remnant of an early experiment in human genetic and

social engineering that had succeeded only in creating another minority. ThorneТs beardless face was framed by soft brown

hair in a short, ambiguous cut that either a man or a woman might sport. Its officerТs jacket hung open, revealing the black tee

shirt underneath curving over modest but distinctly feminine breasts. The gray Dendarii uniform trousers were loose enough

to disguise the reciprocal bulge in the crotch. Some people found hermaphrodites enormously disturbing. He was relieved to

realize he found that aspect of Thorne only slightly disconcerting. Clones who live in glass houses shouldnТt throw . . . what?

It was the radiant I-love-Naismith look on the hermaphroditeТs face that really bothered him. His gut knotted, as he returned

the ArielТs captainТs salute.



"Welcome aboard, sir!" The alto voice was vibrant with enthusiasm.



He was just managing a stiff smile, when the hermaphrodite stepped up and embraced him. His heart lurched, and he

barely choked off a cry and a violent, defensive lashing-out. He endured he embrace without going rigid, grasping mentally